When I look back on 2017 as it comes to a close, I'm amazed at how divided my attitude towards the year has been. On the one hand, I started off the year in a completely different state, away from friends & family, in a job that was grueling (more on that in an upcoming post). But then our little miracle happened. And it seemed that after that, everything started falling into place.I know there have been some major horrors that occurred this year around the world (Harvey, Mexico, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico to name a few...) but for my family and I, personally, it has been the best year of our lives.For starters, we found out we were pregnant with our first, a baby girl. And although as a doctor I was constantly fretting over all the things that could go wrong in a pregnancy, I was so blessed and so fortunate to have everything go smoothly.Shortly after we found out we were pregnant, we started our house hunt. More in an upcoming post how grueling and heartbreaking that was. But then - our dream house fell into our laps. It was a miracle, truly - the story of how we came to get our house is one for the ages, and definitely not a coincidence.After our arrival to Houston by way of North Carolina, we moved into our house and then Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. By some small miracle, the area we had moved to didn't flood more than about a foot, and our house has a bit of elevation on the land, so we were spared from any flooding. We did have minor roof leaks that required repairs, but almost every house did. We were so fortunate, once again.A couple of months after that, Harper Lee was born. I will delve into my labor and delivery story in a future video, but suffice it to say: it wasn't anything I had expected, even as a first time mom and despite my experience as an anesthesiologist who spends about 40% of her practice around laboring moms. It was so much better than I could have imagined!Since that moment, Harper has taken over our lives and made us at least 200% happier than we ever were before. Although we are sleepless, and I'm in my nightclothes more often than not, she has filled up a piece of our hearts we didn't know was missing.As we went around the table on Christmas Day having dinner with HB's family, we talked about the year for each of us and what we were thankful for. I teared up as HB, seated on my right, talked about everything I've written here now. I wasn't one to overuse the word blessed before, as I found it a bit cringe and a little self-promoting. But I can't help but select it as the defining word of 2017 for us--because in recognizing how truly lucky we are, we are better able to appreciate the design of the universe and what God has in store for us.I can't wait to see what 2018 brings.I'm betting it's a whole bunch of smiles.